How to Play Football

After your average Disney short - especially one from the 1940's that centers itself around a "how-to" demonstration of a specific sport - it almost feels as if you need a nap or a reassuring breather. The Disney shorts progress at a briskly-paced rate that almost defies all sense and time and even at their average length - a brief seven to eight minutes - they often race by at such an inconceivably quick rate that one needs to take a look at the time again. Jack Kinney's How to Play Football is no exception to the rules and the content and approach is the same as other "how-to" shorts from the global empire that included golf, baseball, and swimming. The film stars Goofy and gives us a simple yet kinetic look at the sport of football through the use of slapstick and anarchy, pitting together Taxidermy Tech against Anthropology A&M in a rousing and lawless game. The short features the trademark and expected traits of Disney's shorts, being very colorful and involving, but also, just plain entertaining and fun.

Directed by: Jack Kinney.

Not only that, one of the best sports cartoons and one of Goofy's best. Hockey Homicide is perhaps the very best of the Goofy sports cartoons, but How to Play Football is one of the finest examples also. The animation is colourful and fluid as one would anticipate, and the music when it's played is full of energy and makes the audience part of the exciting atmosphere that you get playing sports(or even performing in a concert for that matter). The story, which focuses on college football at its most dominant, is simple and always exciting. But the stars of How to Play Football, other than the deliciously sardonic narration and the gag that the crowd ignore the narration giving a sense that the rules aren't important to them, were Goofy and the gags. How to Play Football is full to the brim with gags(mostly sight gags), and all of them hilarious and on target. Goofy is seen in several personalities, as a wily coach, pampered star player, brutish lineman and silly kicker, all in the same character design, and I found it both interesting and amazing at the same time. All in all, if you love cartoons and sports you will find How to Play Football a treat(I'm not the biggest sports fan but find the How to sports cartoons brilliant on the whole). 10/10 Bethany Cox

PERHAPS THIS ANIMATED short film (aka "Cartoon") owes so much of its widely acknowledged success with both the Public and the Critics due to the bridging of the gap between two seemingly different worlds. On the one hand you have College Football and on the other our friend GOOFY'S habit of fracturing anything and everything. (Spoofing, that is!)

ALTHOUGH THIS CARTOON is old enough to be on both Social Security and Medicare by now, it is still fresh and relevant; proving that the Gridiron just hasn't really changed that much. Plastic shell helmets, face masks of varying elaborately intricacy and competing varieties have found their way into the various stadia, but no matter. Football is still football and so are its fans.

SO WE FIND ourselves at the big game between arch rivals Taxidermy Tech and traditional foe, Anthropology A & M. Goofy is the star and possibly the whole team and cast; as every character is a variation of the formerly named "Dippy Dog". The roster of both varsity squads are populated with some very active Goofy clones.

THE CARTOON EXPLORES each and every cliché that is peculiar to the sport, some even seeming to invent a few new ones. We go through the litany of: "Barking Out the Signals", "Well Oiled Machine", "Throwing a Bullet" and "Swivel Hips". All could have well proved to be tiresome and trite; but they are so well handled and woven into the breakneck speed action that they do serve their purposes so well.

THE OTHER AMENITIES that are offered here are: the outstanding Technicolor photography, crisp & clear sound and a befittingly peppy and energetic score; with both the theme and the incidental music's type and tempo added so much to what is such a sight-gag oriented medium.

THE FINE FIGHTSONG march that opens up all the festivities sounds as if it is an original; but is pleasing and complex enough to be that of some college or university. It was apparently a thought shared by the Disney staff as well; as the colorful tune was reprised for a second go round as the main theme for Disney's 1953 cartoon, FOOYTBALL NOW AND THEN.

From the 1940s even up to recent years, Disney Studios made a ton of the "How To" films starring Goofy. Most are pretty good (especially the last one, "How to Hook Up Your Home Theater"), though a few (such as the drivers ed ones) are a bit on the preachy and annoying side.

"How to Play Football" is one of the better shorts of this series. Much of the reason it's so worth watching is its great sense of humor and crazy and over-the-top action. As usual, all the characters look just like Goofy and the football game ends up being completely ridiculous--and fun. Excellent animation and quality make this one well worth seeing--even 66+ years later. Good entertainment for adults as well as children.

Here's another "Goofy" explanation of a sport: this time, college football. The beginning explains all the ingredients that go into the game, and that's pretty funny.

Then the football starts, pitting Taxidermy U. vs. Anthropology A&M. The star is Taxidermy's "Swivelhips Smith," who takes the opening kickoff and swivels his way 105 yards for a touchdown!

This is really cornball material, but very funny in spots. For example of the corn, they explain "the quarterback barks the signals" and you hear a dark barking - that sort of thing. The funniest play of the game is a 100-yard fumble recovery and run. The rest is fairly routine sight gags.

Very corny, very dated but definitely fun to watch.